Regional Innovation Centre for Energy Technology (RIZ)

The Regional Innovation Centre for Energy Technology (RIZ) launches the project of the new campus. The clear-cut building volume of the Regional Innovation Centre for Energy Technology (RIZ) at the street corner Badstraße / Südring marks the entrance to the new campus. Towards Badstraße, the building appears as a largely closed structure, whilst in the west, a large open façade faces the future North Campus. A generous, angled recess on the west façade guides pedestrians approaching from the old campus through the underpass to the main entrance.

The building comprises a multi-storey research wing with offices and a directly adjacent test lab (technical centre). The office workplaces are located in a clearly structured room cluster that faces west, overlooking the campus and the nearby Kinzig. Located between the technical centre and the research workplaces is an area of circulation and ancillary rooms that repeatedly provides views into the hall. Lines-of-sight connecting the campus outside with the hall inside emphasize the dialogue and the solidarity of an interdisciplinary team of researchers. As a special feature, so-called research zones were created in the office wing, which are connected via voids and stretch across the three upper floors. This results in a vertically floating space that allows for flexible occupation and offers various lines-of-sight. On the roof of the technical centre is an outdoor lab that can be accessed directly from the building.

Pillars and truss girders made of local beech form the supporting structure of the technical centre; the span is around 18m. Laminated beech veneer wood is a high strength building material. The office wing comprises a reinforced concrete frame construction, the solid cores brace both parts of the building. For the façade, wood appeared to be the consistent continuation of the material canon and thus a judicious solution. The outer walls are of passive house quality, they are designed as a timber frame construction, clad with grey varnished scantling of silver fir.

Integral planning of the building design and the energy concept focused on energy efficiency, high quality workplaces and an innovative laboratory concept. A photovoltaic system on the roof of the office wing uses as much renewable energy that the primary energy requirements according to EnEV are undercut by around 70%.